Abstract

Starting from the instability diagram of a traffic flow model, we
derive conditions for the occurrence of congested traffic states, their
appearance, their spreading in space and time, and the related
increase in travel times. We discuss the terminology of traffic phases
and give empirical evidence for the existence of a phase diagram of
traffic states. In contrast to previously presented phase diagrams, it
is shown that “widening synchronized patterns”
are possible, if the maximum flow is located inside of a metastable density
regime. Moreover, for various kinds of traffic models with different
instability diagrams it is discussed, how the related phase diagrams
are expected to approximately look like. Apart from this, it is pointed out that combinations of
on- and off-ramps create different patterns than a
single, isolated on-ramp.